Experience ultimate luxury in our large, 5,000 sf villa in the Conchas Chinas Hills. This new, five bedroom, five and a half bathroom villa is in the upscale Amapas area, where you’ll find some of the most beautiful vacation rental homes in Puerto Vallarta.

Villa Encantada is in the middle of a vibrant, tropical jungle, and has panoramic Banderas Bay views. It’s also a great place to watch the sun set from the wide pool deck. When the days are hot, you can cool down in our gorgeous turquoise blue pool, or relax with a drink at the outdoor bar under the shade of the palapa.

Villa Encantada is a great place for families or a group of friends, with 5 elegant bedroom suites, each with private bath, wide balconies, a large sitting room, and a complete staff that make this house a tropical paradise.

Villa Encantada is close to downtown Puerto Vallarta in the Amapas/Conchas Chinas hills. We offer an open air paradise where you can enjoy the warm ocean breeze and the tropical evenings.

This will be my last blog post from Puerto Vallarta this year. Next year, I hope to spend longer than a week. I love this town.

When I told the kids that I wanted to go back to explore Old Town Vallarta, Rob asked me, “What will you do there?”

“Oh, just walk around, and see what the Old Town is like,” was my reply. What I really thought was, it will be more “What can I learn by going back there:” Rather than what can I do there.

I took the bus to town again, by myself. I call it the “Chicken Bus”. Although no one here is transporting chickens, the buses look similar to the ones I have seen in other places of Mexico and Costa Rica, where cages of chickens were being carried on top of the buses.

The bus stop is on the street in front of our hotel entrance. The fare is 7.50 pesos, which is about 42 cents in US money.

After a bumpy ride, for most of the streets are made of cobblestones, and I am sure the buses do not have the best springs, I arrived in the main part of Puerto Vallarta, near the Cathedral of Guadalupe. I knew I wanted to go further east, into the old town from that church, so I followed the streets that Chef Julio had taken us on, the other day when we went to the Mercado.

There is a river that empties into the sea, at the southern end of the main part of town. This river, the Cuale River, creates an island called the Isla Cuale. Now it is a lovely park.

A staircase crosses the river on the north side, and leads to an upper affluent neighborhood, where Elizabeth Taylor lived, while she was filming the movie, “The Night of the Iguana”. That movie brought Puerto Vallarta to the attention of travelers, and as the locals tell me, that was the beginning of the town becoming a tourist attraction.

A statue of John Huston sits at the entrance to the park. That man was the director of the movie, “The Night of the Iguana”. He made the film here, as he had already fallen in love with Puerto Vallarta. In fact, his home was at Las Caletas, the beach where we saw “Rhythm of the NIghts”. He gave that property to the town of Puerto Vallarta.

As I walked further into Old Town, I saw the everyday life of those residents, going on quietly, without the hustle and bustle of the touristy part of town.

I found the Mercado again, and after a few more blocks, the streets ended, so I made my way back toward the main part of Puerto Vallarta.

At the very western end of the park, I found a small restaurant that served breakfast. Although it was almost noon, I decided to have brunch instead of lunch.

This cafe, called “Incanto”, had a guitarist playing soft music for the patrons.

On the other side of the river is another restaurant that was closed, for workmen were trimming a large bamboo tree that sat at the end of the restaurant. The roots of that tree were actually down at the river’s edge.

There was a man with a machete trimming a tree by the river. The branches fell at the river’s edge, and two more workmen went down there and piled the branches up. Then the machete man went down there and trimmed those branches into tall poles, and stacked them up . All the work was done with a machete. And it was all done while I was having my meal.

« Rhythm of the NIghts and Other Adventures in Puerto VallartaWarm Places »
Old Town Puerto Vallarta
January 16, 2018 by dollygoolsby
2 Votes

Hola, once more.

This will be my last blog post from Puerto Vallarta this year. Next year, I hope to spend longer than a week. I love this town.

When I told the kids that I wanted to go back to explore Old Town Vallarta, Rob asked me, “What will you do there?”

“Oh, just walk around, and see what the Old Town is like,” was my reply. What I really thought was, it will be more “What can I learn by going back there:” Rather than what can I do there.

I took the bus to town again, by myself. I call it the “Chicken Bus”. Although no one here is transporting chickens, the buses look similar to the ones I have seen in other places of Mexico and Costa Rica, where cages of chickens were being carried on top of the buses.

The bus stop is on the street in front of our hotel entrance. The fare is 7.50 pesos, which is about 42 cents in US money.

After a bumpy ride, for most of the streets are made of cobblestones, and I am sure the buses do not have the best springs, I arrived in the main part of Puerto Vallarta, near the Cathedral of Guadalupe. I knew I wanted to go further east, into the old town from that church, so I followed the streets that Chef Julio had taken us on, the other day when we went to the Mercado.

There is a river that empties into the sea, at the southern end of the main part of town. This river, the Cuale River, creates and island called the Isla Cuale. Now it is a lovely park.

A staircase crosses the river on the north side, and leads to an upper affluent neighborhood, where Elizabeth Taylor lived, while she was filming the movie, “The Night of the Iguana”. That movie brought Puerto Vallarta to the attention of travelers, and as the locals tell me, that was the beginning of the town becoming a tourist attraction.

Some of the homes up in that neighborhood now.

A statue of John Huston sits at the entrance to the park. That man was the director of the movie, “The Night of the Iguana”. He made the film here, as he had already fallen in love with Puerto Vallarta. In fact, his home was at Las Caletas, the beach where we saw “Rhythm of the NIghts”. He gave that property to the town of Puerto Vallarta.

As I walked further into Old Town, I saw the everyday life of those residents, going om quietly, without the hustle and bustle of the touristy part of town.

The apartments are newer, the streets are quiet. The tangle of electrical wires overhead is a bit disconcerting.

I liked this place. I think it is a restaurant below, but the tower had small tables and chairs on three levels. It must be a good place for Happy Hour, for a few people

I found the Mercado again, and after a few more blocks, the streets ended, so I made my way back toward the main part of Puerto Vallarta.

At the very western end of the park, I found a small restaurant that served breakfast. Although it was almost noon, I decided to have brunch instead of lunch.

This cafe, called “Incanto”, had a guitarist playing soft music for the patrons.

You can see the river flowing below the deck. On the other side of the river is another restaurant that was closed, for workmen were trimming a large bamboo tree that sat at the end of the restaurant. The roots of that tree were actually down at the river’s edge.

I don’t know if you can see him, but at the right side of the tree, standing on a 12-foot ladder, is a man with a machete trimming that tree. The branches fell at the river’s edge, and two more workmen went down there and piled the branches up. Then the machete man went down there and trimmed those branches into tall poles, and stacked them up . All the work was done with a machete. And it was all done while I was having my meal.

After my wonderful breakfast and the best cup of coffee I have had , I meandered back into town.

The peaceful River Cuale.

The Crown Dome of the Cathedral

One of the many sculptures along the Malecon.

I finished my day in town by walking the length of the Malecon, then I caught another “Chicken Bus” and made my way back to our hotel.

Later, as we were waiting for our dinner, at Victor’s at the marina., I had time to contemplate what a relaxing week we had enjoyed. Although we were active, we were never stressed. I enjoyed the non-stress times immensely.

So here I am, dreaming of my return to one of my favorite cities . Puerto Vallarta.

Once again I am in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, one of my favorite towns to visit. My son, Rob, and his wife, Amy came down with me to enjoy some sunny weather, and it has been a delight to be able to wear shorts, t-shirts and sandals again.

One day, Rob rented a car and the three of us drove up to a little town called Sayulita. That town is one of the Pueblos Magicos, a designation given by the government to certain villages that are unique in their culture, their pride in their community, and has some history or traditions, legends, that set the village apart from others. A village with that designation receives money from the government to make improvements where needed and to promote tourism.

Personally, I think the town has gone overboard on the tourism part of the agreement, for the little village was so crowded it was not fun for me to be there. At any rate, it is a pretty little town, on the beach, with apparently some of the best surfing waves of that northern side of Nayarit.

The waves are not very high at this point, but some amateur surfers were going to ride the little waves, if they could.

The meals were delicious. After lunch on the beach, we walked around the little town for a short time, but it was just too crowded with tour groups and other tourists to be enjoyable.

After we got back to our hotel, Rob told me that he did not ever want to drive in Mexico again, but I thought he did a good job. We had only driven a little over an hour each way, but I would not have wanted to drive, either.

Yesterday, we stayed in Puerto Vallarta. We went into town, and had cooking lessons at one of the restaurants there, called Gaby’s. Now that was an activity that I enjoyed immensely.

Chef Julio Cesar met us at 9:00 a.m. After preliminary introductions, he gave each of us and apron and a shopping bag, then led us on a trip through part of Old Town Vallarta to the mercato, where we bought fresh fruit, vegetables, dried chilies. While we were shopping Chef Julio told us about the food as well as some of the culture of Puerto Vallarta.

Chef Julio picked out some fresh peppers. Oh, yes, he did throw in some of those orange and green habanero peppers. I am certainly glad that Julio knew what he needed from this array.

After buying the produce we needed, Julio took us to a tortilleria, where we bought fresh masa. The ladies that ran this shop make everything from scratch. They soak the dried corn in lime water, then grind it into flour and make the masa. They also make tortillas to sell by the dozen, and the shop was quite busy that morning.

Back at the restaurant, we really got down to business. We made our tortillas from the fresh masa. That was an experience to remember, for as easy as it looks to make those little things, all sorts of things can go wrong. We did get a few that were not torn, but the nice thing about working with masa is that it is like Play Dough…if at first, they don’t turn out well, just roll the dough up into a ball again and do it over.

Chef Julio instructed me on making the strawberry masa for sweet tamales. Those were certainly different. We put the masa on the corn husks, then added fresh pineapple and raisins, rolled them up and they steamed while we made the rest of our dinner.

Our luncheon went on and on and on. We had chilies rellenos, mole chicken enchiladas, ceviche, swordfish empanadas, five or six different salsas, then our sweet tamales.

We left the restaurant after six hours of shopping, cooking and eating. We were all stuffed, but I must say, it was a wonderful day. I loved having this hands-on cooking experience.

After the class was finished, Chef Julio gave us a tour of the restaurant. It is a family-owned business, started by his mother and father many years ago. The family home was turned into the restaurant, and now they are expanding it. His mother was at the cash register yesterday and his grandmother was having lunch in the restaurant.

Chef Julio is going to email the recipes to us. I might be brave enough to try some of these at home. I might have to look hard to find some of the ingredients, but as much as I love to cook, that will be another pleasant, fun experience.

If you find yourself in Puerto Vallarta, and want to take a cooking class, I highly recommend Gaby’s. The restaurant is just 2 blocks up the street from the Church of Guadalupe, the main cathedral in Puerto Vallarta.

Now we are relaxing at the hotel, for tonight we are going on another cultural experience called “Rhythm of the Nights”. I will have to tell you about that tomorrow. (If you want, you can look up my blog posts from January, 2017 and August, 2017, for I had taken that tour on both those dates. ).

I usually do not write posts back to back, but I have so much to tell you, and besides that, my 24 hours of internet access will expire in the morning.

I was dismayed when I checked the weather forecast for Puerto Vallarta before we left home, to find that thunderstorms were predicted for every day that we would be here. We had the resort accommodations reserved; we had booked our flights, and if nothing else, Frank and I are flexible. So here we are, and we have been very fortunate. The first night we were here, it rained cats and dogs for about an hour, then we have had good weather.

Yesterday, we had a reservation to take a boat trip out to the island of Las Caletas to see the show called, “Rhythm of the NIghts”, which is a Cirque de Soleil type of show, but it depicts many myths and legends of the native Mexican people, especially from this area of Jalisco. The island itself was owned by the movie director, John Houston. This is where he lived while directing the film, “Night of the Iguana”, several years ago. He gave this island to the people of Puerto Vallarta upon his death. The island has been kept as close to being as it was in John Houston’s time as possible.

We came to the island by boat, as I said. The trip from the marina in Puerto Vallarta took about 45 minutes. As we were traveling, I told the young lady next to me, who was celebrating her 50th birthday, that the first time we took this trip, dolphins swam alongside the boat.

“Oh,” she exclaimed. “That must have been so great to see that.” The words were hardly out of her mouth when another passenger alerted us to the fact that a pod of dolphins were following us. I tried to count them, but they would dive, then swim closer to the boat, and dive again, but as close as I could count, there were at least ten of those lovely creatures, and they followed us for about ten minutes. That was indeed a highlight of our boat ride. I told the lady that the dolphins did it for her, to wish her a Happy Birthday. She smiled, being so touched.

I could not get a picture of the dolphins, of course, but the sea and the sky were so spectacular last night. All of us knew that at any minute, the clouds could come over those Sierra Madre mountains and rain on our parade, so we were grateful for the beautiful evening.

Before long, we docked at the island. As we left the boat, the crew members gave each couple a large umbrella. Just in case, they said.

We all walked up the dirt paths that were lined with votive candles to light our way, until we reached the amphitheater where the show would be performed.

I have nothing with which to compare this show, except for other Cirque de Soleil performances. Each of the performers were incredibly talented. The loose story line included many of the stories from Mexican history, such as the Deer Dance. A costumed actor, dressed as a magnificent quetzal, that royal bird of this area and Central America, flew over our heads on a wire. There was action in so many different areas, it was hard to tell where to watch, at times.

We were not permitted to take pictures of the performers or any during the show, but this is one of the paths, as viewed from the boat. As you can see, the jungle comes right down to the water.

We watched the show, the actors took their bows, we started up the trail toward the large covered area where dinner would be served. Little raindrops started falling, but it was a very light rain. Later, as we were eating, the rain came down in sheets. The little dirt paths became running rivulets of mud. By the time we had to leave to go back to the boat, the rain was still coming down like crazy. Despite the shelter of the large umbrella for the two of us, we were soaked by the time we got to the boat. All of us looked like half-drowned cats.

Once we were on the boat and all the covers were zipped into place, the crew of our boat gave us another show that was pretty amazing. These guys did take-off and lip synced songs and dance routines from Frank Sinatra, to Prince, to Elvis, the Blues Brothers, then one of the crew performed some magic with glass spheres, that reminded me of a show I had seen in Las Vegas a long time ago.

When we got back to the marina, all the rain had stopped. Puerto Vallarta was dry as a bone. Thank goodness, for I had not been clever enough to bring our umbrellas with us.

One afternoon, one of the chefs here at the resort, gave a cooking class. Yay!! I would get to learn a new recipe or technique after all.

Chef Luciano, from Uruguay, taught us how to make ceviche.

Chef Luciano did not speak English, but I watched carefully, and one of the young girls, an employee of the resort, acted as a translator. Chef Luciano made this ceviche with salmon, so, I will give you the recipe now, because it was so delicious. I made notes while he cut things up. I have found that cooking, much like music, has its own universal language.

Salmon Ceviche

1 fresh salmon filet, about 1/4 pound, trimmed of skin, and cut into small cubes 1/2 red onion, chopped into small dice
1/2 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, chopped into small dice.
Mix these three ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Squeeze the juice of three or four Mexican limes over this, add about a teaspoon of fine sea salt; drizzle with olive oil. Mix together well. Set aside while preparing the remainder of the ingredients: 1 ripe avocado, peeled, diced small
1 tablespoon capers, chopped fine
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 to 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Add these to fish mixture, stir well, then set aside for about 10 to 15 minutes. The lime juice will cook the fish nicely in that time.
To serve, prepare thin slices of toasted baguette. Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on each baguette slice, then spoon ceviche onto those slices. Serve immediately.
Chef Luciano said the cream cheese helps keep the bread crunchy, not soggy. We did not wait 10 minutes for the ceviche to sit. We ate it as soon as he had mixed all the ingredients together and put the mixture on the baguette slices. It did not taste like raw fish, so I guess the lime juice did its job quickly.

Personally, I would serve the ceviche with tortilla chips, but this was the way it was prepared for us, and, as I said, it was delicious.

Today was a quiet day for us, as the weather threatened to break loose all day long. Finally it did, although the rain waited until about 5:30 to start. When the rain starts here, it seems it doesn’t know how to fall gently. We had just a few warning sprinkles, as we were getting ready to go out to dinner.

“Should we take the umbrellas?” I asked Frank, for we were only going about 100 yards.

We decided that we should, and by the time we got down to the ground floor, the rain was coming down in buckets again. We made it to the restaurant and enjoyed a light meal, and by the time we were ready to leave, the rain had stopped. Crazy.

During Happy Hour, the waiter brings our two-for-one drinks all at the same time. By the way, this sangria is just freshly made lemonade with red wine floated onto it, and I like it very much.

Now it is dark, the rain has stopped, and we are enjoying a quiet evening, again.

I hope we get to go back to town tomorrow. We will do that, if it doesn’t rain. I will be sure to let you know how that goes.

P.S. A note regarding my blog post of earlier today: Frank told me that the song, “Lamente Bourincano,” that he requested from the musicians when we were in town the other day, is one that he remembers his father singing. That is the reason he loves to hear it now. It must be quite well-known here, for the musicians knew it right away.

Frank and I decided we needed a vacation. Therefore, here we are in beautiful Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This city is one of my favorite vacation spots, but I do have to say, that it is Hot! Hot! Hot! And humid. Perhaps August isn’t the best time to visit here.

We arrived Saturday night, so Sunday, we just spent the day here, getting acclimated to the time difference (they are one Central Time here) and the climate difference.

On Monday, we took a cab to town, as I wanted to see some of the local places, places I had visited before. I wanted to go inside the cathedral here; a wedding was taking place inside, so I had to bypass a visit that day.

Frank and I wandered down one block toward the Malecon, the walkway that parallels the sea. We remembered that we needed to find a Bancomat, so we wandered down another block or two, found what we wanted, got some Mexican Pesos, wandered some more. To me, it was enjoyable, just looking into the different shops (I cannot say “Window shopping”, for the merchandise was right there in the open. At the park, we watched some children at play; like children everywhere, one little boy was trying to escape from his mother, while his sibling went in another direction.

There were small grocery stores, shoe stores, clothing stores, electronic stores, and of course, many bars and restaurants.

We came to a restaurant that looked interesting. It was nearing lunch time, and there were no patrons in the restaurant yet. That made me a bit suspicious , but Frank looked at the menu, and he decided we could have a drink and a snack. We weren’t quite ready for lunch yet. The proprietor greeted us and told us that we could be seated and he would bring a menu. He told us that there was a cooking class going on in the back room, and soon it would finish, then the chef could begin making lunch for customers.

Cooking class? Oh, how did I miss that!! I told the proprietor that cooking was a passion of mine, so he invited me to watch the remainder of the class. I put that cooking class on my bucket list for my next visit to Puerto Vallarta. The chef was finishing a soup, where he had heated three large rocks, and put them into a pottery bowl of broth, with some diced vegetables and shrimp. As I watched, I could see the broth bubbling around the stones. Soon, right before my very eyes, the shrimp and vegetables were cooked without coming near a stove.

If any of you are planning a trip down here in the near future, look up http://www.gabyrestaurant.com.mx. That will give you information on the address as well as the cooking classes. Apparently, this chef is on a cooking show down here and seems to be well-known. He certainly knew how to make soup in an interesting fashion.

As Frank was eating his little snack, I mentioned to the owner of the restaurant that I was allergic to tequila. That man went into the back of the restaurant and came back to the table with a little glass of what he called a “medicina ” for allergies.

We left the restaurant and continued on our exploration walk of Puerto Vallarta. Only two blocks west was the Malecon, the long walk that parallels the sea. I love that walkway. It was cooler there, also, than it had been, for a lovely breeze was blowing off the water.

This walkway is about two miles long, and we only walked a small portion of it. There are shops on the left of us, trees and flowers are planted in the middle of the walkway, then sculptures are interspersed along the right side.

We walked, stopped to look at things, then walked some more. Sometime, after about two hours or so of this, I decided I was hungry. I wanted some shrimp tacos from my favorite Puerto Vallarta restaurant, La Fuente de la Puente.

This restaurant sits right at the river bank, hence the name, which means, the Fountain at the Point, as the bridge over the river is right there.

We found our way there, without any problem. Soon we had ordered our lunch, and were enjoying a cool drink while we waited for our food. Then, when we were eating, the same musicians that we had seen in Gaby’s, came into the restaurant. They saw us, and came over, as we were all laughing. Frank asked them to sing that same song again and they did. That was a fun experience.

Finally, our long day in town was finished. We caught a bus back toward our hotel, making a side trip to WalMart for some groceries. Soon we were back at our resort, and as I was bemoaning the fact that we were too late to make Happy Hour, one of the attendants told me that Happy Hour on that day was from 5:00 p.m to 6:00. We made it!!

I got a bell boy to help me take the groceries up to our room, while Frank got us a table at the open air restaurant near the lobby.

Oh, just as an aside, one reason that I love Puerto Vallarta is that it is not an expensive place to visit. For instance, at WalMart, I bought fresh fruit and vegetables for salad, cold cuts, cheese, some pastries and bread, a few other items all for 350 Mexican pesos, which sounds like a lot of money, but is the equivalent of about $19 US.

So we made Happy Hour, and relaxed after a long day of just enjoying being in Puerto Vallarta.

I have more to tell you, but it will have to go into another blog, for this one is getting too big. And it is almost Happy Hour time again.

Periodically we’ll feature one of our properties here to let our readers know about some great gay friendly places to stay:

Come to Casa 567 in the heart of Puerto Vallarta’s charming Old Town, a year-round, gay owned guesthouse at 567 Venustiano Carranza.

Casa 567 is one of the original Puerto Vallarta townhomes behind the Emiliano Zapata Mercado (a busy and colorful Mexican market). We’ve spent the last two years restoring this beautiful home to its original Mexican style.

We offer four one bedroom suites, and one two bedroom suite, each with its own private baths. We invite all of our guests to enjoy the intimate rooftop pool and our fourth floor open patio, which has panoramic views of mountains, Old Town, and the Pacific Ocean.

Old Town is very gay friendly, and we’re close to Los Muertos beach, shopping, dining, clubs, and bustling city life. It’s just a short cab ride to any of the City’s destinations, including the ocean and Malecon, just eight blocks away.

We’re at the end of Venustiano Carranza, a quiet get-away, also close to the city’s gay bars.

There’s wifi access from each of our guest rooms, as well as a flatscreen cable TV, fresh linens, and a self-serve laundry on our first floor. We also offer a small gym facility and a common area room with an extensive movie collection.

Coming to Puerto Vallarta? Stay in the heart of the action at Casa 567!

The birth of Puerto Vallarta as an international destination was the result of one of the raciest affairs to come out of Hollywood, so it is no surprise that the cobblestone-street-city is now one of the most popular locations for romantic getaways. The city is Mexico’s only beach destination that boasts a gayborhood in its Zona Romantica, home to a broad array of cafe, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, as well as hotels and operators with an LGBT clientele.

Same-sex marriage is legal in Puerto Vallarta. Most resorts, like the Almar Resort, Casa Velas or the Costa Sur Hotel and Spa, which has already hosted over 2,000 same-sex weddings, have in-house wedding planners who can fulfill every want and need of any bridezilla, male or female, plus coordinate plenty of things with enough local flavor to spare for guests to do in between wedding activities.

Alternative locations such as Vallarta Adventure’s Las Caletas clove offersa private middle-of-the-ocean location under the star and on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Destination weddings offer couples the romance of making their vows close to the romantic ocean waters and the background of the perfect magical sunset. There is no better place for that to happen than in Puerto Vallarta where every sunset is picture perfect, look it up #PuertoVallartaSunset.

Those looking for a destination honeymoon will find that Puerto Vallarta is the ideal destination for those looking for secluded hideaways with luxurious amenities and the great outdoors. Boutique properties like Casa Velas, Casa Cupula or Garlands del Rio offer a Mexican-villa feel with the amenities of a world-class stay. Contracting a yachts by Mike’s Charters offers lovers the opportunity to circle the Bay of Banderas for sunset cruise.

Guadalajara was never on my travel wish list for Mexico, I admit it. The blank spots I’ve been wanting to fill on my Mexico map are places like San Miguel Allende, Guanajuato, Copper Canyon and the beaches on the West Coast – Puerto Vallarta, Sayulita, and San Pancho, all of which I’ve been wanting to visit since reading about them on a bunch of travel blogs a few years ago, when several bloggers based themselves there for their winter escape.

And that’s exactly how I ended up in Guadalajara: Its proximity to said beaches. I was looking for a place to fly to that had easy access to the coast, and which seemed worth exploring. Guadalajara sounded interesting enough: the cultural capital of Latin America in 2005, a university town, a city with art museums and a historic city center, and a city with several Jose Clemente Orozco murals, one of the famous Mexican muralists whose art I adore. What more could I ask for? A great flight deal ($109 from LA, booked only three days in advance) sealed the deal.

My instinct had once again brought me to the right place. From my very first stroll through the historic center, I was much reminded of Mexico City – and you all know how much I love Mexico’s capital.

Today was a day to just relax by the pool. Susan and I have had a week of relaxing, but we also learned about some of the culture of Mexico, and especially about the state of Jalisco. I am always open to learning new things.

We took a trip up to two of the towns in the Sierra Madre mountains, Talpa and Mascota. Although I had been there before, I learned new things about these towns this trip.

Both of these villages are listed as Magical Towns (Pueblos Magico). This is a designation given to the by the board of Mexican tourism. To qualify, a town must have:

1). A history of a significant event, either real or legendary,

2). A unique everyday life, and

3). The town must be well preserved.

Once the town has this designation, it receives money from the tourist board to keep the town clean and in good repair. One thing one village did was put all the electrical lines underground, rather than have the unsightly mess so often seen, of lines running all over the place.

Mascota also has a high school where students can elect to learn a trade, as well as obtain the usual high school education. The specialties of this school include cheese making and butchering, as the countryside has many farms. We also saw two woodworking classes, one for boys and one for girls. We could not discover why the classes were segregated. Both classes made furniture, cabinets for houses, and other practical wooden items.

The products from this school are sold in town, or at the school, and all proceeds return to the school.

The other town we visited, Talpa, has a lovely city center dominated by a church. This town’s historical event was a miracle where a statue of the Virgin that was made of leaves and grasses was converted into a beautiful golden statue. That statue now resides in the church. Pilgrims come from all over to pray to the Virgin.

The area, despite being in the mountains, is very dry. It must be extremely hard to grow things in this arid climate; however, sugar cane flourishes, and several stores in this village are candy stores, making their treats from the sugar cane, as well as some of the tropical fruit of the region.

Another town in Jalisco that has the Magical Town designation is Tequila. Yes, that is the name of the town. This town is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is known for the blue agave from which the liquor, tequila, is made. I did not visit that town, so I don’t have any pictures, but I did learn something about tequila.

The true tequila from the blue agave is only produced in Jalisco, with limited amounts being allowed to be produced in other states. If the tequila is not made from only the blue agave, and is made with a combination of juices from other agave plants, the liquor is called Mezcal. Therefore, all you tequila lovers, the Mezcal with the worm in it is not a true tequila.

That is only one of some well-known facts (to me) that was shot down during my cultural lesson. I also discovered that Mariachi music is not Mexican in origin, but Austrian, although it sounds more like German polka music to me. That makes sense, given that Maximilian from Austria, was a king here for a short time, before he was assassinated. Mexican beer also has its beginning with Austrians.

Last night, we took a boat trip to the island of Las Caletas for dinner and a show, depicting the culture and some of the fables of the native Indian cultures. The show was more like a Cirque de Soleil, in that many acrobats, a flying butterfly who was playing a violin, a walking tree, along with the fire jugglers. A mermaid greeted the boat as we approached the island.

Our dining tables were along the water’s edge. A harpist and a guitarist played soft background music. The lighting was torches and votive candles. It was truly a relaxing evening, with good food and wine.

When we left on our boat to return to Puerto Vallarta, we were entertained by our ship’s crew, who did a tribute to Kiss, the 1980’s rock group. They did a pretty good job of singing the songs, although their guitars were made of wood and had no strings. To me, the epitome of the evening, though, was when the captain turned off all the overhead lights, allowing us to see the full moon overhead, with barely a wisp of a cloud in the sky. We could still see the Sierra Madre mountains in the background of the city of Puerto Vallarta as we travelled back to the Marina. The lights along the shore of the city lent an air of a place of festivity and holiday, but also a place of peacefulness.

Today, I just enjoyed the quiet and solitude of Club Regina.

Too soon I will leave this enchanted place and return to cold weather. Until I write again,

Brought into the tourism spotlight by famous Hollywood celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and offering a broad range of gay bars and nightclubs, gay-owned restaurants, hotels, stores, services, and entertainment that established the destination in a league of its own, it is no wonder Puerto Vallarta has been a favorite among LGBT travelers for decades.

In recent years, the Puerto Vallarta Tourism Board, the entity responsible for promoting the destination in the US and Canada has partnered with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, GMHC and the International Gay Lesbian Travel Association to promote the destination to the LGBT market.

In 2014, Puerto Vallarta became the first Mexican destination to participate in a World Pride with its Noche Alegre event during the World Pride celebrations in Toronto; and in 2015 the tourism board became the first destination to sponsor the Human Rights Campaign on a national level.